This article was first published by Sludge.
Much media attention in the 2024 elections has gone to the world’s richest person, the ubiquitous Elon Musk, whose political spending has exploded this cycle for former President Donald Trump and Republican candidates.
The frenetic cash outlays by Musk and his tech industry associates over the past six months have obscured record high spending in this election cycle by a more familiar conservative billionaire: industrialist Charles Koch and his Americans for Prosperity Action super PAC.
Overall, AFP Action’s spending in 2024 federal elections has more than tripled over its level in the 2020 contests.
About two-thirds of that amount this cycle has been to help Republicans hold control of the U.S. House and retake a majority in the Senate, where they need a net gain of at least one more seat if West Virginia elects the Republican candidate, as is widely expected.
"The Koch network's premier PAC more than doubling its contributions over the last two election cycles is a clear indicator that our campaign finance system is badly broken,"said David Kass, executive director of the coalition Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), which advocates for progressive tax reform.
"Ultra-wealthy donors like the Kochs are using their vast resources to influence key Senate races, aiming to make Trump's tax cuts permanent, which would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy and big corporations,” Kass said.
Only the two super PACs tied to Republican congressional leaders, the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund, have spent more backing Republican candidates for the House and Senate this year than AFP Action has, according to a Sludge review of Federal Election Commission spending data.
AFP Action’s independent expenditures for House and Senate candidates have surpassed $101 million since the start of last year, none of it supporting Democrats. By comparison, Musk’s America PAC has been predominantly occupied with the presidential race, spending just $19.2 million on House and Senate contests. (AFP Action spent on the presidential contests as well, putting up more than $50.6 million supporting Nikki Haley in the primary and opposing both Trump and Biden.)
In a July statement, the conservative AFP Action described its spending as part of a “firewall strategy” seeking “to prevent one-party progressive rule in Washington.” In October alone, the super PAC spent over $42 million on canvassing, mail, door hangers, and media production, according to FEC records.
Of this cycle’s amount raised by AFP Action, $40 million has come from conglomerate Koch Industries, in two donations made in May 2023 and July 2024.
Another $43 million has come from one of the Koch network’s “dark money” organizations, Stand Together Chamber of Commerce. Tax documents show that much of Stand Together’s funding, a combined $150 million in 2021 and 2022, came from another Charles Koch-led “dark money” entity called CCKC4.
Three billionaire heirs to the Walmart fortune — Robert S., Jim C. and Alice L. Walton — together have donated at least $25 million to AFP Action this cycle.
About a quarter of AFP Action’s spending on congressional contests, nearly $25 million, has targeted the key Senate races in Ohio and Pennsylvania, backing the two Republican challengers, businessman Bernie Moreno and former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick. A recent press release from AFP Action touted its millionth door knocked for McCormick, who is also being backed in the Keystone State by a super PAC stuffed with donations from billionaire Republican megadonors, led by at least $15 million from Citadel hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin. In both states, Republican challengers have received more support from outside spending groups than have their Democratic incumbents, who have raised far more money.
The Koch-funded AFP Action is also spending big in the key Senate contests in Michigan, Montana, and Nevada. The super PAC is the spending arm of the 501(c)(4) advocacy nonprofit Americans for Prosperity, which banked more than $112 million in revenue in 2022, its most recent tax year available, and has been ramping up its federal lobbying spending since 2020, touching on issues of immigration, taxation, and energy policy.
A recent report from ATF found that 150 billionaire families have already contributed are cord-breaking $1.9 billion to this election cycle, with 72% going to Republicans.
Under the Republican-passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Charles Koch’s fortune grew from around $47.7 billion at the end of 2017 to over $59 billion, according to a July report by ATF on the effects of the Trump-signed legislation. Julia Koch, wife of the late David Koch, saw her net worth swell to $64.9 billion, an increase of more than a third, since the GOP tax cuts benefiting the very wealthiest took effect.
“If we want a government that works for all of us and not just the wealthy few, we must curb the political influence of the ultra-rich. This requires fair taxation and stricter limits on campaign contributions,” Kass said.
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